I have a choice of ceiling height of 10 foot, 12 foot, or cathedral ceilings
in a room of 21' 6" x 22' 10". The cathedrals would be nice but it would
seem to loose some stc value by being so close to the roof. I have
researched most of the popular books for this answer and the only place I
could find some info on it is the aurelex acoustics 101 article where they
spoke a little bit about cathedral ceilings.I am shooting for laminated hard
wood flooring so maybe an acoustical ceiling would be better.This is not a
mixing room but more of a tracking for playing live piano and acoustic
guitar work.I am striving for the most cubic feet but something keeps
telling me to stay away from cathedral ceilings.

We don't have cathedral, rather, 12' ceilings. We have concrete floors,
with flags, horse blankets, etc hung from the ceiling braces. It smoothed
the highs right out and controls the reverb. We can add or subtract
material and the room sound changes. Colorful too. We intend to build at
some point in time, but on this room we definately put function ahead of
flounce. Not really designed for commercial use. It was a hell of a lot
cheaper to build this room than studio time would have been. We'll probably
do 3-4 of our own albums here along with some private label stuff, and
build when we outgrow the space. Meanwhile the ability to modify the room
accoustics easily is a plus.

--- In acoustics@e????ups.com, "David Quave" <dquave@b...> wrote:
> I have a choice of ceiling height of 10 foot, 12 foot, or cathedral
ceilings
> in a room of 21' 6" x 22' 10". The cathedrals would be nice but it
would
> seem to loose some stc value by being so close to the roof. I have
> researched most of the popular books for this answer and the only
place I
> could find some info on it is the aurelex acoustics 101 article
where they
> spoke a little bit about cathedral ceilings.I am shooting for
laminated hard
> wood flooring so maybe an acoustical ceiling would be better.This is
not a
> mixing room but more of a tracking for playing live piano and acoustic
> guitar work.I am striving for the most cubic feet but something keeps
> telling me to stay away from cathedral ceilings.

Especially for your purpose, tracking live acoustic instruments, you
are one heckofaluckyfellow, as you have the height to go for cathedral
ceilings - DON'T EVEN THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE!!
Yes - its more difficult to insulate, a bit more expensive, but you'll
find it worth every single penny.
A well designed cathedral ceiling will give you a FAR superior
acoustic space.
There are some materials available which make insulation / ads / diff
easier. So if you decide to go for it, let me know.